


Blue Copper Cogs/Red Iron Washers

by InfinityIllusion



Category: Bleach, xxxHoLic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Crossover, I am not sorry, Ichigo wears gothic/gothic loli clothing in this, Kinda, Kisuke spent some time training/dealing with Yuuko, M/M, Well youkai, because wish granting maching, borrowed from xxxHolic, makes sense right?, staring Ichigo who hates rain as an Ame-Warashi, warnings for self-hatred, wish witch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-16 02:52:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14802977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfinityIllusion/pseuds/InfinityIllusion
Summary: Kisuke has spent centuries in the Human World, seeking ways to try and prevent Aizen from burning the worlds to the ground.What Kisuke has gained in the intervening years: a candy shop, another job/responsibility of his own making fulfilling Wishes, and a crush on the being that keeps visiting his shop when it rains.(Day 3: Something!Kisuke, Something!Ichigo)





	Blue Copper Cogs/Red Iron Washers

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach....
> 
> Right, so, yeah, don't ask me what the backstory of the Shiba clan and various supernatural creatures are idk but it seems like them.
> 
> I will respond to all of ya'll tomorrow because it's nearly midnight and I need sleep since I've a dress rehearsal to get to tomorrow night and I don't think I can sing if I'm asleep...
> 
> Edits: 5/31/2018 Added a few words in, made Tessai more of a kidou snob (lol, Kisuke don't experiment with kidou in a candy store plz.)

* * *

“Welcome to the shop,” Kisuke calls somewhat carelessly from his position near a table at the back of the customer accessible area.

The customer doesn’t reply, but that’s not unusual, and really, Kisuke is having too much fun attempting to recreate a diagram of the inner workings of the  _kidou,_   _Kurohitsuji_ ,to care much.

(It is ever so entertaining to see people who _know_ do a double take at his works.  It keeps him occupied, considering how best to alter this display or another to better help him think of new avenues to explore in his current research – or, the research he can conduct at least semi-publicly – in regards to _kidou_ output, changes in phrasing, and in the case of _Kurohitsuji_ , the number of impaling objects.  It also ensures that he knows just who might know far too much, just as it is amusement in seeing Tessai’s face at the heretical setting.  The Kidou Corps made him even more uptight about where one should study _kidou_ , as if he wasn't uptight enough about that sort of thing already.)

The rain washes against the windows, and Kisuke sighs at the sound.

It rarely rained in Soul Society, and as much as he’s resigned to his exile, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t miss certain things – his lab, his experiments, and now he’s feeling melancholic about the _weather_.

Maybe he really is going soft.

But, Yuuko has taught him that as much as he might lie to others and the world at large, lying to himself only comes back to bite him in the ass.

(His own exile should have taught him much the same, at least when it came to lying about how much he cared, how much responsibility he felt he had, but then, just because he acknowledges the truths doesn’t mean he voices them.

Benihime huffs as she continues tending the man-eating rose trees along one of the trellises within Kisuke’s labyrinthine mindscape.  Weeds are doubts and worries, and she does not need the walls eroding any more than they already have.)

The customer clears their throat, and Kisuke takes that as his cue to return to behind the cash register.

They (she?  Although there’s no attempt to hide the adam’s apple, so Kisuke decides to mentally stick with ‘they’ unless he’s told otherwise or has a chance to ask.  There’s no need to be rude, after all, when you have customers in an out of the way shop like this, and have only vague ideas of who walks into the store. Kisuke has tried very, very hard to make sure he has more than just a vague idea, but the various identification matrices don’t mesh well for certain beings, and others find it rude) have the loudest orange hair Kisuke has ever seen, and it stands out in incredible contrast to the dark maroon lacy blouse and something that could be pants or could be a long skirt depending on how he looks at it.  Kisuke has to admit that the boots really do work well for the overall outfit – tall, with a reasonable heel that might not be needed, given their heigh, but still accents their legs…

“Just these candies please.”

Kisuke blinks, and starts counting up the assorted chocolate pieces.

“That’ll be ¥538.”  He places the colorful candies into a paper bag, wincing, because it looks like it’s going to start pouring any minute now, and the customer doesn’t even have an umbrella.

 “Thank you,” they say, and head out into the rain with the slightest sigh.

Really, though, what were they expecting – it’s _tsuyu_.

~IiI~

They come again, a few days later and still without an umbrella despite the rain, pay for more miscellaneous pieces of chocolate, and Kisuke tries to spend fewer seconds thinking of how the new outfit fits curves and planes of muscles in ways that make him want to put aside his research for a few hours for a different kind of exploration when he rings up their purchase and as they walk out the door with a sigh (which Kisuke probably wouldn’t have noticed if he wasn’t watching their shoulders, so clearly whatever thrall they have him under is getting to points of ridiculousness, as this is literally the  _second time he’s seen them_ ).

Instead of putting aside his research for the fun kinds of things his imagination is tempting him with, Kisuke puts up better wards limiting the power of beguiling spirits, creatures, and beings, and puts the customer out of his mind.

Tessai raises an eyebrow at him, but it’s not like he hasn’t done something similar with wards for Hollows, _nogitsune_ , _oni_ , and anything coming from _Enma-daiou_.

(Seriously, the last time they had someone in from the judge, the shop nearly burned down, _youkai_ were running everywhere, and the Great Barrier was forced to go up between this world and the Makai.  Kisuke had lost an entire three months’ worth of research time trying to help fix things up and get the shop operational again.)

~IiI~

Kisuke starts expecting the customer whenever it rains, and, when on a whim he opens up part of the back to serve tea to go with some of the sweets as a trial run, the customer comes in and spends the better part of the day at a table in the back, sipping tea, eating very few of the traditional sweets Kisuke provides a selection of, and instead eating something like five chocolate tarts in between reading large sections of the book they apparently conjured from nowhere.

Unlike the few other customers in that day, they don’t look out to see the interplay of rain and the greenery of the garden, or the pools of water on stones that Tessai is so very proud of configuring.

They buy a few more pieces of chocolate before they leave, no umbrella in sight, and while there’s no sigh this time, there’s something vaguely grim about the tension in their neck, their back, the _cant of their hips_.

There are too many people left (there is exactly one person left and that is Tessai who’s begun cleaning up) for Kisuke to put his head in his hands and groan, but that doesn’t stop him from wanting to.

(Benihime is laughing at him, and if the roses of her favorite man-eating tree are ever so slowly, a petal at a time, shifting slightly in hue from blood to something brighter, if not softer, in a way too natural for a spell or allure, well, Kisuke doesn’t come in here often enough to tell.)

Clearly the wards aren’t working as well as he’d hoped.

~IiI~

When Kisuke starts keeping an eye out for new kinds of colorful chocolates and happens to put them out on rainy days, the customer doesn’t say anything, but there’s something that, on any other day, might be a smile on their lips and in the corners of their eyes.

Their thanks is always more heartfelt on those days.

(Tessai is starting to catch on, and Benihime keeps laughing at him.  Kisuke wonders why this is his life.)

~IiI~

“Do you want a cup of tea, or hot chocolate, or coffee?” Kisuke asks during another visit by the customer, when they look particularly disinclined to brave the rain.

“Um, I don’t want to impose…” They say, one hand reaching up to cradle the back of their neck.

“It’s no bother,” Kisuke dismisses, “I don’t think anyone else is going to brave the weather, and we have a variety of drinks on hand anyways.”

The customer’s eyes had darkened at the mention of the weather, but they can’t seem to waste the opportunity to needle Kisuke, either.

“Have a lot of visitors, or just waiting to extend an offer to a poor customer?”

“I’d hardly call you a _poor customer_ – ah, I don’t think I ever caught your name?” Kisuke lets the statement curl up like a question, but it’s a statement. He’d know if he’d caught the customer’s name before (it would have made the restructuring and his subsequent recreation of the wards that much easier).

“Oh, I’m Ichigo, Kurosaki Ichigo.”

There’s a glint in Kurosaki-san’s eyes when they say their name, but Kisuke decides to play it extra safe and keep referring to them as “san” regardless.  They are, after all, still a customer.

(Five minutes later, Kisuke is corrected into calling them “Ichigo-kun,” because “Kurosaki-san makes me sound like Goat-face, you’re not that much older than me, and don’t even think about ‘-chan.’” Which raises the question of who or what Goat-face is and their actual relation to Ichigo-kun – cousin? Brother?  Random person who has the same last name?  It doesn’t sound like a husband….)

Somehow, the invitation for a hot drink turns into nearly five hours of talking, and would have gone on for longer, had Tessai not come back with the most recent shipment of parts for a new device Kisuke’s had in the works for a week that had been delivered by one of the mermaids coming down from a visit with a supplier that had agreed to carry the parts down to Kisuke, to repay a similar favor she’d asked of him.

~IiI~

“Tessai tells me you have a crush~,” Yoruichi-san purrs smugly, winding between Kisuke’s legs as he attempts to recreate a very specific structure from the divides between Hollow and Shinigami powers, which he normally wouldn’t dare put out, but since it’s pouring and he still has to keep the shop open, he needs something difficult to keep him entertained.  Besides, no one ever seems to buy these kinds of lollipops anyways.

(Quietly, he’s panicking, because there’s no more deflecting that he can do, now that Tessai has actually _told_ Yoruichi-san something. Especially since he told her _that_.)

“He says that there’s this one customer that had you throwing up all kinds of wards for a few weeks, but now whoever they are they have you tied up in knots to see them.”

Kisuke ignores Yoruichi, and instead wonders if he’ll need to sandbag the door.  The weather really isn’t _that_ bad, really, but you can’t have a flash flood ten blocks away and not be a little concerned.  His research is in the basement, after all, and while it’s sealed and protected by a wide variety of things, there’s no need to borrow trouble.  And cleaning the floors of water and debris is time consuming, exhausting, and just generally not something Kisuke wants to do.

“And I know that if this had been in the past, you’d have closed up the shop on a day like this to go and hole up in your lab working on something or another.”

Kisuke decides that he has a few sand bags left over from the last major storm, and they’re just down the hall in the closet, since he forgot to move them down into the basement, so if necessary he’ll just use those, and continues to tweak the arrangement of lollipops and practice selective hearing.

Unfortunately, Kisuke’s luck isn’t that good, because not a minute after Yoruichi-san finished commenting on the current state of the shop, the one customer he was expecting enters.

“Welcome to the shop!” Kisuke says, and if he’s more enthusiastic than usual, well, he’s being at least temporarily saved from Yoruichi-san’s inquisition (not to be confused with her Inquisition, as one involves considerably more bodily harm and blatant torture).

“Hello, Urahara-san.  I’m surprised that your shop is still open, today.”

“Yes, well, I couldn’t let my favorite customer come and be disappointed by a lack of shops selling quality chocolate, now could I, Kurosaki-san?”

Ichigo-kun rolls their eyes, but there’s laughter on their lips when they say, “I told you, Urahara-san, call me Ichigo.”

“And I keep telling you to call me Kisuke!” Kisuke replies with a wide grin from under his bucket hat.

“Hmm, but I’m still your customer,” Ichigo points out with a raised eyebrow.

“I see how it is, Ichigo-kun, I see how it is.  You just come here for the selection of chocolates!”

“Sure, something like that.”

Yoruichi-san takes this as her cue to wander over to Ichigo-kun.

They eye her warily for a moment before crouching and offering a hand.

“Hello, Yoruichi-san. It’s been some time since Kuukaku-nee-san has seen you around.”

What.

Yoruichi-san accepts the hand and encourages Ichigo-kun to pet her as she replies.  “Hmm, I was wondering who was coming to visit Kisuke on rainy days.  It’s good to see you, Ichigo-kun.  How have you been enjoying your travels?  Your sisters enjoying their stations?”

Ichigo-kun stops petting her for a moment, face going blank, before they respond.

“Well enough.  And yes, Karin has decided to attempt to take over the Eleventh from within, while Yuzu is running a cafe and volunteering at the Fourth when she has time, if she’s not leading self-defense classes.  And yourself?”

“Keeping busy.”

Ichigo-kun laughs, and it’s the first time Kisuke has heard it since that day he invited them in for tea.

Kisuke takes a moment to appreciate the sound, how it smooths the scowl from their face, before mentally returning to the fact that he has, apparently, been playing shopkeeper to the heir of the Shiba family – a _noble family_ , from the Seireitei if not quite  _of_ it, in that they are a motley collection of souls and beings, as displayed by how relaxed they are in having Yoruichi-san over for sake even now.  It’s one thing to invite an old friend, even one that was exiled, but it’s another to speak with, become friends with, the man who allowed one’s former clan head to _die_.

(Kisuke did not hold the blade, but he was in no place to present his evidence, in no place to be pointing fingers at Aizen, and in that, Kisuke has only himself to blame – for making the Hyogoku, for not stopping Aizen when he might’ve had the chance, for being exiled instead of the real traitor.)

In the background, Yoruichi-san and Ichigo-kun – even if they should be addressed as Shiba-dono, they’ve asked him to call them Ichigo-kun, and Kisuke…Kisuke can respect that wish (if it causes something warm to flutter in his chest at the permitted familiarity, well, he doesn't have to acknowledge it to anyone else).

Still, Kisuke can’t help but wonder why the Shiba heir is _here_.

The visit continues as normal after that, but there’s a thread of tension running through every word, and Kisuke doesn’t like.

He wishes that they’d had their normal easy bantering.

Kisuke would _prefer to be ignorant_ of the knowledge that Yoruichi-san has dropped on him, to have that easy relationship back.

Well.  Perhaps not quite, but it would be a much harder decision than it normally is.

Kisuke is a scientist, after all, and he is endlessly curious.

~IiI~

The next time Ichigo-kun comes to the shop, they look exhausted, and instead of their usually fancy and lacy clothes they wear a pair of black skinny jeans and a graphic t-shirt.

They’re not even wearing their boots, instead opting for a pair of worn converse.

“Welcome to the shop!” Kisuke says, but his heart isn’t in it, not when Ichigo-kun looks as worn down as he is.

They pause in the doorway, and Kisuke holds his breath.  There’s a desperation in that gaze that he hasn’t seen since the last Wish he’d granted.

It’s for a good reason.

“Urahara Kisuke,” they say, “I have a Wish.”

And like he’s done of every person and being who’s spoken those words, he replies, “What is your Wish?”

“I am a Ame-Warashi, but I hate the rain – my mother died because of my powers.  I wish to be something – anything – else.”

“And what do you offer as your Price?”

“I offer my powers as an Ame-Warashi.”

Kisuke swallows as he weighs the price.

“That is enough to change your powers, but you would still, at heart, be an Ame-Warashi.”

“Then what is the Price of my Wish?”

“Your price is your Place – your powers, your standing, your society.”

Ichigo-kun’s face hardens, but they nod in understanding.

“Then I accept your Wish.”

There’s a flash of light, and thunder rumbles low enough that it feels more like an earthquake than a storm, and then Ichigo-kun is standing before him in their black skinny jeans, converse, and graphic t-shirt and Kisuke is holding a violently blue sphere of power, culture – everything that makes an Ame-Warashi an Ame-Warashi.

While Ichigo-kun remains standing, staring at Kisuke and the orb of power – human.

(Not quite, not completely, as Kurosaki Ichigo’s genealogy and heritage is more complicated than either of them suspect at the moment– but that is the nature of Wishes, and the luck of Kurosaki Ichigo.  Nothing every goes quite as expected.

Kurosaki Ichigo loses their powers, their standing, their society, and gains them all back in defeating Aizen Sousuke, gone mad with a God-complex and a Wish to reform the world.)

Right now, though, Ichigo-kun is standing there in front of Kisuke, and while he sends the orb of power away to fulfill another Wish someday, Ichigo-kun is there and _smiling_ , bright enough to blind.

Kisuke can’t help himself – he leans in, slowly enough that Ichigo-kun can’t possibly mistake what he’s going for – and kisses him.

Ichigo-kun kisses him back.

(Benihime continues to give special attention to the roses, and _cackles_.)

* * *

And Ichigo goes on to curb stomp Aizen because Ame-Warashi, at least in xxxHolic are pretty dang strong.  And this is Ichigo we're talking about.

Kudos, Comments, Concrit welcome!

~Fins

**Author's Note:**

> Tsuyu: the rainy season in Japan, lasts from generally somewhere in the middle of June until end of July/August (there's some whole formula for number of sunny days and temperature to dictate the end of tsuyu but I wasn't actually paying that much attention that day in class haha...)
> 
> Also, my thoughts were that Masaki died from drowning when Ichigo was a kid, but totally up to you how you want to see that bit in the fic. :p
> 
> As for the future and Ichigo as a Shinigami hybrid thing: my brain went: what is the opposite of water?  SPACE/VOID. Which is how Ichigo still ends up with Zangetsu as a Zanpakutou if any of you are curious.
> 
> Regarding Kisuke and Ichigo's pronouns: so Japanese isn't really big on pronouns in the first place, and actually using a word for "you" when you know a person's name is either intimate, super casual, rude, or rude af depending on your relationship and which word you use ("anata," which is either polite "you," or can be translated as "darling" when referring to one's spouse (usually used by a woman), and then the versions we're all oh so familiar with "teme," "yarou," etc.). Kisuke also apparently just doesn't want to ask Ichigo idk why, and since this is written in Kisuke's POV (somewhat limited 3rd), Ichigo remains a "them" in the story. If you want to read this as genderfluid/agender Ichigo, by all means go ahead.  
> Also, even if Kisuke has heard that the Shiba heir was announced as male (being a noble family it probably happened), like, that doesn't mean he's gotta be rude and assume once he actually learns who Ichigo is.


End file.
